Judgment From Experience

Good judgment comes from experience, which often comes from bad judgment." One sees that quote in many places and, on one level, its easy to understand. The irony is one must obtain some experience before understanding it on other levels. Like most young aspiring pilots of the day, I was building time flight instructing. This was in the early 1960s, when the trainer of choice was the Piper Colt. This was a very forgiving airplane, even though it didnt look like one. After shepherding a student through his private certificate, he purchased half interest in a Bonanza. He needed 25 hours of training to satisfy the insurance company, so off we went. After the required training, I endorsed his logbook. Soon, however, I watched him make a very short pattern with steep turns. Despite lecturing him many times on the respect he must have for this aircraft, I decided to show him first-hand.

Key Takeaways:

• An experienced flight instructor, attempting to teach a reckless student a lesson, intentionally initiated a stall in a Bonanza without dual controls.
• The demonstration quickly escalated into an uncontrolled spin, putting both pilot and student in extreme danger and requiring a perilous low-altitude recovery.
• The only factor preventing a fatal crash was the instructor's single good decision to climb to a higher altitude, underscoring the critical role of judgment, even amidst a display of bad judgment.

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